Canada won the first Olympic ice hockey gold medal in 1920.
Ice hockey made its Olympic debut at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, rather than at a Winter Games. Canada’s Winnipeg Falcons represented the country and won the tournament decisively, defeating the United States in the final round.
The competition used a format in which teams advanced through a series of rounds, and Canada outscored its opponents heavily. The Canadian squad’s victory established the country’s early dominance in international Olympic hockey.
Men’s ice hockey moved to the Winter Olympics at Chamonix in 1924, the first edition of the Winter Games. Women’s ice hockey was added much later, debuting at Nagano in 1998. Because of this history, the first Olympic hockey champion belongs to a Summer Olympics, a detail often overlooked in general Winter Olympics quizzes.